Free Software and Open Source Symposium 2011
Introduction
The Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS) is an annual event where speakers discuss open source and free software projects and subjects that influence the open source world. The conference spanned 3 days from Thursday to Saturday. Thursday was when the workshops occurred; I attended the Processing.js workshop hosted by Jon Buckley and Dave Humphrey and then the Android Development workshop by Simon Chang. Friday and Saturday were when the presentations occurred. The presentations I went to were:
- "How to start an Internet Famous Business with Open Source Software" by Mike Hoye
- "Building a Commercial Game Using Processing.js for Cross-Platform Delivery" by Dawn Mercer, Jeremy Friedberg, Daniel Hodgin, and David Perit
- "Free and Open Strategy as Practice: Participant Perspectives" by Mekki MacAulay
- "A Slice of Raspberry Pi" by Eben Upton
- "Introduction to the Google Android Platform" by Simon Chang
- "When you cannot be there... Remote access and collaboration" by Raul Suarez
- "How Web Browsers Work" by Ehsan Akhgari
While I really enjoyed the talks, the two perspectives that will be discussed will the presentations by Mekki MacAulay and Eben Upton.
Free and Open Source Strategy as Practice: Participant Perspectives - Mekki MacAulay
One of the presentations I attended on Friday was a presentation held by Mekki MacAulay. Mekki is a PhD candidate studying at the Schulich School of Business. The reason why I chose this talk to cover was due to the nature of the presentation. Many of the presentations during FSOSS were about a particular project, and those presentations discussed specifically about that project and the things that affected the project. In terms of scope, they were very localized. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but because of the larger impact Mekki's research can have, as well as my background in studying the humanities, I felt really drawn by the presentation.
The presentation revolved around the study of various open source practices that may either help or hinder a group's growth. The study was still a work in progress, however, the amount of research and the correlations that resulted from the in-depth interviews he conducted were fascinating to me. The purpose of the study was to analyze the practices of open source communities and to see how the different types of practices affect the functioning of the community. Mekki mapped the various routines that occurred in multiple open source communities (given to him via interviews with members of various involvement) to four categories. Practices were considered an enabling practice if the action was considered a positive interaction and motivating for the person and a disabling practice if it had the opposite effect (these two categories were from the research by Mantere). As well, if the practice was codified it was considered to be a recursive practice; whereas the opposite would be classified as an adaptive practice. After categorizing the practices, Mekki found that things weren't as simple as "recursive practices are disabling" and "adaptive practices are enabling." The results showed that recursive practices had instances that were considered enabling, and adaptive practices that were considered disabling. Further analysis showed that the stage of the open source community (well established or fairly new) had an effect on whether or not a recursive practice was seen as enabling or disabling. The same applied for adaptive. I found this fascinating, because the projects that were offered to us had communities that ranged from recent (paladin/gladius) to fairly mature (processing.js).
Based on the presentation by Mekki, I was left with the impression that he was deeply involved with open source. He portrayed open source as opportunity, one where everyone can take part in and benefit from. From his study, it was clear that he would like the information to help aid the sustained growth and involvement of new contributors to the open source community. I think it's a great goal to aim for, being able to help ensure that both new and old open source communities stay strong is very important for both end users and for driving innovation in the software industry.